Tonight was the first time Erica had ever seen Matthew smoke.
And, he looked absolutely sexy doing it. She was smitten all over again. Erica quietly took out her phone and opened the camera app, and brought Matthew into the frame. She zoomed in so she could see him better.
Before she could snap a pic, she met Matthew's eyes through the view screen.
So, he caught her trying to get a pic of the perfect moment.
Erica didn't stop, though. She pressed the button, and the camera took several pics in rapid-fire succession. She had it in burst mode, just in case.
It was not illegal for her to take pictures of her husband.
Erica was used to men smoking. After all, her father was a heavy smoker.
However, Wesley almost never smoked at home or in front of the family. He usually smoked a few cigarettes when he was outside, if he was annoyed, or had nothing better to do.
But Wesley never reeked of cigarettes. Maybe it was because he smoked high-quality cigarettes, or because he didn't smoke too much. More likely it was because he carried disposable wipes to wash his hands with, and breath mints to mask the smell on his breath.
But it still settled on his face, clothes, and hair. So you could tell the man smoked. But it was not too heavy to be repulsive and not too light to be missed.
After a while, Matthew walked around the car to the passenger seat and reached out his hand to Erica.
Looking at his large hand, Erica was a little confused. "What?"
"Your phone," he demanded.
'What's he playing at? Is he going to delete the photos?' she thought. Erica held her phone. "No. And why should I give it to you? I asked to look at your phone twice, but you refused to let me see it. So you can't see mine."
Matthew didn't push the issue. He put his hands back into his pockets and decided to change the topic. He wanted to address some of the stress dividing them. "Tessie and Lenora deserve what they get. I'm not giving in on that."
He couldn't let her have her own way on this, or she'd run into problems later.
"Well, I'm still thinking about it. If you've made up your mind, it's fine, as long as you don't kill them." Erica didn't want to keep fighting with Matthew over this. After all, he had helped her a lot.
'Huh? She caved in easily! What's up with that?' Matthew decided to believe her for the time being. He didn't say anything and sat in the driver's seat.
After he closed the car door, Erica could still smell the faint scent of tobacco wafting from him. It was not overpowering, and mixed well with his cologne.
She took the pack of cigarettes he threw back into the glove compartment and opened it. There were only two cigarettes missing.
She looked at the profile of the glowering man and asked, "Did I make you unhappy?"
The man's sexy Adam's apple bobbed while he replied, "No." He was reflecting on whether he had done something wrong. Why did Erica resist his attempts at intimacy so adamantly?
"Do you smoke a lot?"
"No." He would break out a coffin nail any time he felt upset. Most of the time, he wouldn't smoke at all for one or two months.
"Do you hate me?"
"No." How on earth could he ever hate her? But he could easily turn that question around. He wondered if she refused to sleep with him because she hated him.
"If you don't hate me, why do you keep saying no?" she asked. Matthew was confused. What kind of logic was that? He really didn't hate her. What else could he say?
"If you didn't hate me, you wouldn't keep saying no all the time. And a few more words wouldn't kill you, either!" His replies to her questions were rather curt.
Obviously, he was being perfunctory with her. She was embarrassed by this. Couldn't he feel it? Matthew didn't say anything. 'God, she's hot!' he thought.
"So we're back to square one. Saturday. Dinner. You going or not?" she asked.
"Yeah, fine."
"What do you want to eat? Do you have anything in mind?"
"Not really. I'm down with whatever." As long as he was with her.
Erica was starting to get annoyed. "But I don't know the first thing about the city. You've lived here all your life, and you can't choose a restaurant? How about a home-cooked meal? I'll cook for you," she said. She had to learn how to cook sooner or later. What if she and Matthew really slept together on his birthday and she had a baby?
Matthew was busy all the time and wouldn't hire a servant. She would have to take care of the baby herself. If she couldn't cook, she and the baby might starve. '
A meal cooked at home?' The idea scared Matthew a little. The corners of his mouth twitched. He tried his best to say a few more words while answering, "I'm not picky. Whatever you want to eat, I'll run with it. Western, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, vegetarian even. Anything you want."
"Know what sounds good? Liuzhou river snail rice noodles. Oh! And how about hot and sour rice noodles, wonton, rice flour noodles, and hotpot. Any of those do it for you?" 'He won't like any of that. I'm one hundred percent sure.
Or will he?' she wondered. His answer was, "I know just the place. I'll call and reserve a table. Just drop by my office and we'll go there together."
'Humph! That's more like it!' she thought. "So it's settled!" she said to him.
"Hmm."
Back in the bedroom of the villa, Erica pointed at the makeup on the dressing table and asked her husband, "Why did you buy all this for me?"
Matthew shrugged off his suit jacket. "Mom asked me to." He didn't even know she was out of makeup. It took Debbie to point that out to him.
Erica's doubts were confirmed. "You don't need to buy me makeup next time. I don't even know how to apply it!"
"I'll ask someone to teach you."
"No, thanks. I'm too lazy to learn." All she wanted to do now was to learn how to be an amazing photographer. Once she did that, then she could work on being famous and internationally renowned.
Matthew took off his suit jacket and threw it aside. "I'll ask Owen to get you a membership in the Photography Association in H Country. You can go on some location shooting activities with them. It'll be good for you."
"Sounds good! But… " Erica studied Matthew's face. He didn't seem to be in a bad mood, so she ventured to ask, "Can you help Hyatt get a membership too?"
He cast a sidelong glance at her and asked, "Does he mean that much to you?"
"I owe him my life, Matthew. You know if he hadn't called my brother, they could have killed me. I'm alive. How can he not mean a lot to me?"
Matthew thought that incident had happened because of his negligence. After that, he had arranged for someone to follow Erica around in secret to protect her.
Turning, Matthew headed to the walk-in closet and said, "I was actually going to get a membership for each of you."
'Each of us?' Erica smiled happily. She knew that Matthew was very nice to her!
When Matthew came out of the bathroom, Erica sat in front of the dressing mirror, brushing her hair. Hearing the sound of the bathroom door opening, she raised her head and looked at her husband. "Look. What do you think?"
"About what?" he asked, staring at her from a distance. She looked different somehow. When she blinked, he had his answer. She'd applied some makeup.
"What do you think of my eye shadow? I found a tutorial online! It was written by a real make-up artist!" Erica put down the eye shadow disk and jogged over to him, trying to give him a closer look.
Her eyelids were of a golden hue and had a metallic sheen. Matthew didn't know a thing about it, so he didn't say anything.
Knowing he didn't understand, Erica blinked her eyes and explained, "I'm wearing firefly eye shadow. Just tell me, what do you think?" She felt beautiful. Not only had she mastered a new skill, but she thought she looked prettier.
Matthew asked in a low voice, "Do you really want my honest opinion?"
"Yes," she said. Of course. Otherwise, she wouldn't have asked.
"It looks like you just jumped out of the Eight Trigram Furnace."
"What? What are you talking about?"
Matthew continued to share his opinion mercilessly, "Remember Journey to the West? Fiery Eyes, Golden Gaze? It reminds me of that. So tell me, can you identify evil now, no matter what form it takes?"
'What? Does he mean that my eyes look like the Monkey King's?'
That was so harsh. Covering her chest, Erica held back the urge to flare up. Why did she even bother to ask him?
"If you really want to learn how to apply makeup, I'll ask Paige to find you a professional makeup artist tomorrow. You can learn when you have time," added Matthew.
Erica shook her head in frustration. She had a little interest in makeup, but this man threw cold water on the fires of her enthusiasm.
"What about the lipstick? Do you like it?" She wasn't going to give up. The man had to redeem himself somehow.
Matthew grabbed her chin and lifted it to get a better look. "No comment." Because he wanted to kiss her red lips so much.
He was afraid he would never be able to kiss her again if he said another word.
She pouted. This wasn't good. 'No comment is worse than any comment, right?' He was just trying to spare her feelings. She must look awful.
